Muffin Much (Miraculous Lovebug series pt2)
by iwritebadbutdealwithit98
Summary: Marinette gives Adrien a taste of baking.
1. Chapter 1

Marinette's arm quivered, upright and planted by her elbow against the livingroom table. She seemingly sat calmly on the floor, but she was putting all her focus into her right arm. Her hand was clasped against Adrien's, who pushed firmly as she did. From far away, their battling arms appeared to be at a standstill. But the wrestling was so evenly matched, that though both parties put all their might into one direction, they cancelled each other out and neither arm pivoted to any direction.

"I'll admit," Adrien puffed, "This is lasting a little longer than I expected."

Marinette's grip tightened, "Oh? And who exactly did you think was going to win?"

Adrien grunted, "Well… I figured there's only so much muscle you can build with a suit that does most of the work for you. Granted, the exercise does your muscles and physique some good… but I thought, I did a lot more physical activities than you, I mean I didn't even think you did any… but-"

"I'm stronger than I look, you said so yourself, remember?" Marinette raised an eyebrow.

Adrien laughed nervously, "Yeah, but I didn't think you were _this_ strong. Why else do you think I went into this so smugly? But it would seem, you could pack a punch, Princess."

Marinette tilted her head forward, "So this is a humbling experience for you? I guess that means I have to win at any cost to keep your ego at bay."

"Ego?!" Adrien's knuckles slammed against the table.

Marinette sighed with satisfaction, "Ah, you let your guard down. For a fencer and basketball player, you should know a thing or two about letting your guard down…"

Adrien rubbed his hand, " _And,_ for a fencer and basketball player I should be stronger than this!"

"Maybe you would be stronger, if you'd taken those fencing skills to the test and picked up a _real_ sword. Those things are heavy,"

"Ha, and why exactly would you be as strong, or stronger than me? Because _you've_ picked up a sword and used it?"

"What's this? Is it so offensive to lose a strength match to a _girl?_ " Marinette squinted.

Adrien leaned forward, "No! You know I'm not like that, Princess… it's just, what on earth are you doing to keep your civilian self this strong? I know sewing and the like doesn't do this…"

"You're forgetting that I _bake_ ," Marinette winked.

"Bake?! Wow… I really thought I was fairly strong for someone my age…" Adrien held his chin in his hand.

Marinette reached forward, "And you _are_ ," she lifted Adrien's shirt, his face reddened, she poked his chest, "I'll bet you have stronger core muscles than me-" Adrien quickly pulled down his shirt. It was funny how quickly he could go from being comfortable showing off his body to being embarrassed based on the circumstances.

"Because," Marinette continued, "Fencing and basketball work mostly the core and leg muscles, right? Maybe a little bit of the shoulders… but it's not like anything is super heavy, so your arms get toned, but don't get as much out of it. A _baker_ on the other hand," she touched her flexing biceps proudly, "Is constantly challenging their arms."

Adrien grumbled, "I can't even beat a baker…"

Marinette snorted, "That's because you can't even _beat_ an egg."

"Oh, _ha ha_ , very funny," Adrien rolled his eyes.

"Well, why don't we go and try making a couple things? Some chocolate chip cookies, maybe? A cake?"

"Sure, _piece of cake_."

"Don't act so cocky just to prove a point. You haven't even tried it yet. And you know very well that you're excited as ever to make desserts."

"Mmhmm, I'll show you Marinette, you're _toast_."

"Ugh, I can't wait to wipe that stupid grin off your face."

"So you can make puns but _I_ can't?"

Marinette walked over to her kitchen instead of replying. She washed her hands and ordered Adrien to do the same. She pulled out some mixing bowls, whisks, and spoons.

"How about we make a strawberry cake along with the cookies?" she made a suspiciously mischievous face.

"...ok."

She pulled out some flour, baking soda, and salt, "Could you mix these together in this bowl?"

"It's the _yeast_ I can do," Adrien took the measuring cups, spoons, and whisk from Marinette, "How much?"

Marinette winced at the pun, "Two cups of flour, one teaspoon of the baking soda and salt."

Marinette combined the brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla extract, butter, and eggs by hand. Now to leave the hardest part for Adrien…

"Now, take this spoon, and mix your bowl into mine."

She gave no more instructions from their, and watched and refrained from laughing as she saw Adrien dump the entire bowl of powder at once. He struggled to get it all mixed, his circular mixing motions gradually slowed down, his face scrunching up simultaneously.

"Ok… now I see where you're coming from. Alright… I _guess_ I'll give you that."

Marinette watched him squirm, even through his stubborn words, as the mixture solidified. She set the oven to preheat.

"If you want, you can use your hands now," she tapped her lips.

Adrien looked relieved, "I think I _knead_ to." He pressed his hand into the dough, tossing the spoon aside, that completely useless spoon…

Marinette told Adrien to fold the dough as she sprinkled in a couple handfuls of chocolate chips.

"Why do these chips look so weird?" Adrien studied the octagon shaped chips.

"We make them ourselves. It's easy, just some cacao butter, cacao paste, cocoa, and sugar… we make a lot and stock up on it, ready to be made into anything. This is cacao butter," Marinette put away the chips and pulled out a bag, opening it to show Adrien, who was finished with the cookie dough.

"Gross… it looks like cheese, but it smells delicious."

Plagg flew out of Adrien's shirt, "Did someone say cheese?"

Tikki came from Marinette's jacket, "Not actual cheese, it just _looks_ like it… but I'm excited that you're making cookies!"

Marinette smiled, "And you're just in time, they're ready to put in the oven."

Adrien licked some cookie dough off of his finger, "Mmm, no wonder you make _dough_ off this stuff…"

It took a lot of willpower to not dump the bowl on Adrien's head, but Marinette took a deep breath and proceeded to scoop spoonfuls of dough onto a pan.

Once the cookies were in the oven, Marinette was smiling again, "Now… for the strawberry cake."

"I'm _berry_ excited."

And there went the smile. Marinette took out a strange contraption with a handle, "You won't be for very long…"

Marinette chopped the ends off of some strawberries with some help from Adrien. When they were done, Marinette turned to the contraption, "This is a food mill, we're going to make strawberry puree." The smile made it's return.

Adrien held the food mill, "Well this thing is _pureely_ new to me."

"Uh huh…" Marinette dumped the strawberries into the opening of the food mill, "Turn the handle."

Adrien jerked at the handle, and found his arm moving much slower than he'd imagined, "What the hell… isn't there a machine for this or something?"

"This _is_ a machine."

Plagg cackled, "You need me more than I thought you did."

Adrien scowled and turned the handle faster, "Well… it wasn't really _that_ hard, I just expected it to be easier…"

"That's a _cheesy_ excuse if I ever heard one," Plagg pulled out a stash of cheese Adrien had for him and swallowed it whole.

"You don't deserve that cheese…" Adrien glared back at Plagg, who was smacking his lips.

Adrien finished the last of the berries and heard the juice drip into the bowl through the holes underneath the handle, "Wow, that was pretty _straining_."

" _Eggs_ actly," ha, now who had the last laugh? "Had enough?"

"Yeah, baking really isn't a _yolk_ …" Adrien smiled at Marinette's frown, "But I just couldn't help _mix_ a few _buns_ into the batter, because your face just _cracks_ me up."

Marinette picked up a spare strawberry, "Ok… that's the last _straw_!" and through it at Adrien.

"Oh come on," Adrien grinned, "You can do _butter_ than that."


	2. Announcement (This is not a chapter)

I just wanted to make an announcement! This is not, individually, an ongoing story! This was a one shot for a prompt. However, I consider this a side chapter to Miraculous Lovebug (another story I posted) and happens during the summer vacation that the fic is now on. So if you want it to "continue", please refer to Miraculous Lovebug to get both a background and continuation from here, thank you :)


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